"Public Sector Bank Employees Strike Over Five-Day Week and Pension Demands"
United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU)
Umbrella body of seven bank employee unions representing about 90% of bank staff.
Bipartite Settlement
Industry-wide wage and service-condition agreement between bank unions and the Indian Banks' Association.
India's public sector banks (PSBs) trace their origins to a series of nationalisation decisions. The Imperial Bank of India was renamed the State Bank of India (SBI) in 1955, becoming the country's largest public sector lender. The major wave of bank nationalisation followed in 1969 and 1980, bringing 20 commercial banks under government ownership. This created a large, unionised workforce with service conditions governed not by individual bank boards but through industry-wide negotiations. The Indian Banks' Association (IBA) was established as the collective bargaining counterpart for bank management, negotiating wage revisions, allowances, and service conditions with employee unions through a Bipartite Settlement process. These settlements, typically concluded every five years, cover officers and clerical staff across all IBA-member banks.
The governance of PSBs has evolved considerably. The Banks Board Bureau (BBB), set up as a recommendatory body, selects the chairmen and executive directors of public sector banks, separating the appointment function from direct government control. PSB consolidation has also proceeded through mergers: the associate banks of SBI were merged into the parent institution, reducing the number of PSBs and concentrating their balance sheets. Despite these structural changes, the labour relations framework has remained largely unchanged: unions negotiate collectively with the IBA, and any change in service conditions, including working hours or weekly holidays, requires both IBA agreement and central government notification.
Bank employee unions in India are organised under the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of seven constituent unions. These include the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA), the All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), and five others. Together, UFBU claims to represent roughly 90% of bank officers and staff across public sector and some private sector banks. This concentration gives UFBU significant bargaining power, and a UFBU-called strike typically results in near-total disruption of branch-level services in PSBs.
The current demands centre on three issues. First, unions want all Saturdays declared bank holidays, effectively creating a five-day banking week. Under existing rules, branches remain open on the first, third, and fifth Saturdays of each month. The 12th Bipartite Settlement signed with the IBA in March 2024 agreed in principle to this change, but implementation requires a formal central government notification, which has not been issued. …
The Chairmen of public sector banks are selected by the
With reference to the governance of public sector banking in India, consider the following statements :
1.Capital infusion into public sector banks by the Government of India has steadily increased in the last decade.
2.To put the public sector banks in order, the merger of associate banks with the parent State Bank of India has been affected.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Consider the following pairs:
Institution / Body — Primary Function
1.Indian Banks' Association (IBA) — Selects chairmen of public sector banks
2.Banks Board Bureau (BBB) — Recommends appointments of PSB chairmen and executive directors
3.United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) — Collective bargaining body representing bank management
4.Reserve Bank of India (RBI) — Apex banking regulator under the RBI Act, 1934
How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?
With reference to the pension systems applicable to public sector bank employees in India, which of the following statements is/are correct?
1.The National Pension System (NPS) is a defined-contribution scheme where the pension corpus depends on market returns.
2.The Old Pension Scheme (OPS) guarantees a fixed pension linked to the employee's last-drawn salary.
3.The NPS was introduced for central government employees joining service after 2004.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
With reference to the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) and public sector bank employee strikes in India, consider the following statements:
1.UFBU is an umbrella organisation of seven constituent bank employee unions.
2.UFBU represents approximately 90% of bank officers and staff.
3.During a UFBU-called strike, digital banking services such as UPI and mobile banking are also suspended.
4.The 12th Bipartite Settlement agreed in principle to a five-day banking week.
How many of the above statements are correct?
Assertion (A): The merger of associate banks with the State Bank of India was carried out to consolidate the public sector banking system.
Reason (R): The Imperial Bank of India was renamed the State Bank of India in 1955, making it the country's first major public sector bank.
Which of the following is correct?
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